“Level Up” News: Dragon Age III, Stan Lee, Borderlands 2, & More!

So much video game news! Welcome to “Level Up,” where we will take a quick look at some of the biggest and most recent video game news items, and hopefully get +5 Awareness for completing this task (but hopefully without endless grinding and fetch quests).

Dragon Age III: Inquisition Officially Confirmed

This morning Executive Producer, Mark Darrah of BioWare, officially confirmed in an open letter what everyone has known for a while: Dragon Age III is in the works! Here is the relevant excerpt from the aforementioned letter:

“I am pleased to confirm that we are, in fact, working on the next Dragon Age game. Not a big surprise to most of you, I know. We have been working on it in some way for about two years now with the bulk of our efforts ramping up about 18 months ago.

Part of that effort has involved you, our fans, and the feedback you’ve provided for Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and their DLC. We’ve visited message boards, read reviews, and we’ve gone to events to have direct face to face conversations with some of our most passionate fans. We’ve been listening, and we will continue to listen.

Recently, I said that we didn’t want to talk about Dragon Age III unless we had something to show. I’m trying to stick to that plan and won’t be revealing much today. That said, a lot of information and rumors have surfaced recently and we don’t want to hide from them. There are a BUNCH of things that I really want to share with you but I want to do this right, and doing it right requires some more time.

So here’s what I can confirm for now:

The next game will be called Dragon Age III: Inquisition.

We won’t be talking about the story of the game today. Though you can make some guesses from the title.

This game is being made by a lot of the same team that has been working on Dragon Age since Dragon Age: Origins. It’s composed of both experienced BioWare veterans and talented new developers.

We are working on a new engine which we believe will allow us to deliver a more expansive world, better visuals, more reactivity to player choices, and more customization. At PAX East, we talked about armor and followers… Yeah, that kind of customization. We’ve started with Frostbite 2 from DICE as a foundation to accomplish this.”

Despite confirming what many people already knew, this is still a very exciting announcement. You can read the entire open letter here at DragonAge.com. It sounds as if the developers will be listening to and working quite closely with fans to not repeat any of the perceived mistakes from Dragon Age II. Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.

Wii U Pre-Orders Selling Out

Last week saw a flood of new Wii U announcements, and it turns out that Nintendo’s new system will indeed be a hot holiday commodity. Retailers such as Gamestop, Sears, and Best Buy have all sold out of the $349.99 32GB “Deluxe” bundle, and the $299.99 8GB version is going fast too. You better act fast if you don’t want little Sally, Billy, (or any gamer Mommies and Daddies) to be disappointed on Christmas morning. Feel free to smack me for mentioning Christmas in September, but I didn’t create this situation, I’m just reporting on it.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes Promo Art

Konami has released what they are saying is new promo art for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. This actually looks like a complete version of a promotional art image that was out during PAX Prime. Since the footage from the game looks so amazing and I like thinking about it, here is the image in its full glory.

Stan Lee Announces Verticus Mobile Game

This weekend at Comikaze Expo in Los Angeles, Stan Lee proudly announced the new game app Veticus from Moonshark. The game characters were apparently created by Stan “the Man” himself, and he also provides some voice work for the game. We all know the Stan would never slap his name on anything but the best these days [ahem]. The voiceovers in the game are actually somewhat amusing, but without playing it yet I’m not sure if the same can be said for the game itself. Check it out for yourself in the trailer below.

Just Take My Money

To switch it up for a minute, here is the coolest belt buckle I have seen in a long time (possibly the coolest ever), and a “must have” for the arcade video game lover in your life. A repurposed cabinet video game coin-drop re-imagined as a belt buckle that lights up (available here on Etsy)?! Brilliant. Just take my money. TAKE IT!

New Borderlands 2 Launch Trailer

In what just might be the biggest game release this fall, we are finally just hours away from the launch (or depending on when you read this, already in thegaming nirvana) of Borderlands 2! As if we needed any more prodding to be excited, Gearbox has released a new launch trailer to titillate us even more. After having some hands-on time with this game a couple weeks ago at PAX Prime here in Seattle, I can assure you that it looks like Borderlands 2 is going to live up to all of the hype and high expectations. The wait is almost over (or over, depending on when you read this).

On that high note, I’ll bid you adieu for now. I hope this debut edition of “Level Up” did indeed raise your Awareness +5. What new games are you the most excited about? Sound off in the comments below, and check back in here at ComicBooked.com for all kinds of gaming, movies/TV, and comic books news and reviews. Thank you for reading.

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